The Upper Chapel: A Room Wrapped in Light

Nothing outside, and nothing on the narrow staircase, prepares you for what lies up here. The first thing you notice is the huge expanse of stained glass surrounding you. Thousands of small pieces glow in blue and red, and the intensity of the light shifts constantly with the time of day and the movement of the clouds, giving the whole space an almost otherworldly feel. It is a world away from the dark windows you saw from outside.

Those thick buttresses jutting out from the exterior carry the weight of this tall space, which is what made it possible to fill the walls entirely with stained glass.

Another trick is hidden in the columns between the windows. Each is a bundle of seven slender shafts, which looks slimmer than a single thick column would. The optical illusion makes the glass seem to take up even more of the wall.

The statues at the base of the columns are the Twelve Apostles, one on each column, ringing the room. If the columns hold up the building physically, the Apostles do so spiritually. Beside them, 44 quatrefoil medallions are set into the walls, each carefully depicting scenes of martyrdom suffered by saints and apostles: a history of devout faith tucked inside all the splendor.